Former Utah Gov. and presidential candidate Jon Huntsman (R) said Tuesday that “something doesn’t connect” with respect to New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie’s (R) knowledge of lane closures on the George Washington Bridge last year.
Christie fired a top aide that implicated in the closures, which led to a four-day traffic fiasco in Fort Lee, New Jersey, but maintained last week that he personally had no knowledge of the affair.
Huntsman, who appeared on MSNBC Tuesday with Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va), also a former governor of that state, said that gubernatorial offices are structured so tightly that everyone would be aware of such an action “down to, you know, a minuscule details.” (sic)
“But I have to tell you that having run a governor’s office — and Joe has done the same thing, and every governor’s office, whether your state is large or small, it’s pretty much organized the same way,” he said, as quoted by the Washington Post. “Your neighbor is a chief of staff, and your deputy chief of staff is just right down the hall. And everybody knows, day in and day out, what’s playing out in your state. Down to, you know, a minuscule details.”
He continued: “So there — there’s something here that just does not connect fully in terms of how communication was handled and the issues were put forward to him.”
‘Because I know how governors’ offices run,” he added. “I ran one. Joe knows how governors’ offices run. He ran one too. I think any governor would probably tell you the same thing about how tight those internal staffs are and the extent of the detail that flows to the governor’s office.”
